Pruzane

Against the backdrop of mass deportations of Jews in the nearby communities, escalating severity of pun- ishments in the Bialystok ghetto, liquidation of Jaszy- nowka and Pruzane, where 4,500 Bialystoker Jews had been sent in the fall of 1941, the young factory workers in the ghetto began to prepare for armed resistance. ...

... Although the Nazis set a quota of 12,000 Jews to be deported to Pruzane, the Judenrat in Bialystok pro- duced only between 5,000 and 6,000. The reasons were that those not included were still valuable for slave labor, some who had been summoned to the deporta- tion center never showed up, and some on the list some- how managed to obtain papers and employment. The Nazis, thanks to the influence of the Judenrat, did not press the twelve thousand maximum. ...

... On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, 1941, a large number of Jews received summonses from the Judenrat, commanding them to appear with their possessions at 8 A.M. the next day at a point of embarkation, from which they would be sent to Pruzane, a village not far from Bialystok. No one believed the Nazis would allow this group to reach their destination alive. Families were plunged into terror, panic and deep mourning as they contemplated what lay ahead. ...